Cotton and cotton blend knit goods are commonly bleached with an alkaline hydrogen peroxide solution in a range which first saturates the goods with bleaching liquor, then heating the saturated goods by steaming and transiently storing the goods in a J-box while retaining the heat applied by steaming for a sufficient bleaching period. Prior U.S. Pats. No. 2,334,066 and No. 2,858,184 contain representative disclosures of such processing.
More recently systems have been developed in which the bleaching liquor was applied in the heel of the J-box while steaming in the straight leg of J-box below the piling level therein. Both of these systems, however, have involved troublesome disadvantages. Where the goods are saturated first and then steamed it has not been possible to stop the process without emptying the J-box because tendering of the goods results if this is not done, while when the bleaching liquor is applied at the heel of the J-box a constant poundage of throughput must be maintained in order to keep the J-box piling high enough in the straight leg of the J-box for steaming and steaming of the J-box pile has tended to yield non-uniform results.
The present invention eliminates these disadvantages.